and 0, which can be solved as a quadratic equation in the cube of the variable. Etymology The describer "sextic" comes from the Latin stem for 6 or 6th ("sex-t-"), and the Greek suffix meaning "pertaining to" ("-ic"). The much less common "hexic" uses Greek for both its stem (hex- 6) and its suffix (-ik-). In both cases, the prefix refers to the degree of the function. Often, these type of functions will simply be referred to as "6th degree functions". See also Cayley's sextic Cubic function Septic equation References Equations Galois theory Polynomials